What better way is there to start this brawl than to introduce the contenders, starting with the Tick. Created by Ben Edlund in 1983 as a mascot for a comic book store and then later developed into his own series to pay for his film school tuition, the Tick is a 7 foot tall buffoon who spouts weird catchphrases and nearly non-sensical monologues about good and evil, all of which are things found within your classic superhero comic (who has ever said “for truth, Justice and the American way” without knowingly quoting Superman?). The world of the Tick, also known as “The City”, is filled with absurd comical characters. One example is Die Fledermaus, a cowardly version of Batman who is more into his swinger lifestyle than actual crimefighting. Another more villainous example is Chairface Chippendale, a man who wants to take over the world because his head is a chair. No other reason. He has a chair for a head and somehow can speak, in spite of not possessing a mouth. The Tick and his sidekick Arthur are the City’s greatest heroes, despite one being a complete twit who doesn’t understand, well, anything about modern society, and the other being an insecure mess with no powers other than a flight suit that looks him like a rabbit (although he insists it’s a moth). I could spend the whole article talking about the many different characters from Ben Edlund’s imagination, like Bi-Polar Bear, Dinosaur Neil and American Maid to name a few, and I would absolutely love to but I have to continue to the more depressing contenders in this fight.
In Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ 1986 magnum opus (as DC is so over-eager to market it as), the Watchmen are a bunch of inept, self obsessed fetishists, each one representing a different ideology prominent in US politics. Rorschach, an Ayn Rand worshipping hypocrite who hasn’t showered in 3 years, spends his time writing unsolicited articles to a Far-Right publication about his various conspiracy theories that he comes up with (in spite of having no proof), including such little “gems” as “drinking in a bar means you like Child Pornography” and “not being Republican means you’re gay”. Dr Manhattan, a god-like entity who sees all of his timeline at once, is impotent when it comes to making any real change. He’s also a nudist as, seeing himself as no more than an observer, there is no real need for him to keep up appearances. Nite-Owl is a social reformer representing the centre-left who has all the gadgets but cannot affect real change, whereas Silk Spectre, representing the centre right, is a self centred woman with massive daddy issues. The Comedian, representing the far right, is a gun toting psychopath who kills for fun and is a dead ringer for Nick Fury (no, not Samuel Jackson). Last but definitely not least is Ozymandias, the worlds smartest man who changes the world by giving up all traditional Superhero methods. He changes the world with Philanthropy and enacts a master diabolical plan to fake an alien invasion as it’s the only thing that would cause lasting peace between America and Russia (remember; this was 1986, when world politics looked like a tangled mess of week old spaghetti).
So why would you compare these two pieces of work? Both are satires of the Superhero genre; one for comedy and the other for tragedy. Oh, unless you’re the kind of person who loves the Zack Snyder movie and doesn’t realise that Watchmen is a satire. In the words of Grant Morrison, Snyder “recreated Watchmen visually but completely missed the subtext”. Although he wrote nicer things about the movie in the chapter of “Supergods” when he was a DC employee, the real point was made there. Watchmen, like a lot of superhero comics, is a response to William Wertham and his book “The Seduction of the Innocent”. Watchmen is exactly how Wertham saw the Superhero; overly violent thugs overwhelmed by their sexual kinks and not good role models for children. As well the portrayal of violence in Watchmen being truly horrific and stomach turning, it eschews the usual superhero comics trope of “they have a fight, triangle wins”. You see an almost sadistic glint of joy in Rorschach’s mask as he doles out punishment or Nite Owl vomiting behind the trash cans at the sight of blood. Unless you only saw the movie of course. Then you can hear idiot frat boy Snyder high-fiving over how knurly that stunt was. Zack Snyder is also an outspoken objectivist (supporter of Ayn Rand) which explains why the film version omits Rorschach’s dubious theories and ignores key descriptions of him, like replacing his emotionless monotone for Jackie Earle Haley’s second rate Nolan Batman imitation. If he changed his role in the world anymore, we’d be hearing lines from all the other characters how much they miss him (as opposed to the ones in the book where they talk about how glad they are he’s not around). But it’s not just within the film where this warped misunderstanding of the book exists. DC released a sequel to Watchmen called “Doomsday Clock”. The most unlikely scenario happens in it; everybody in the world believes the incoherent ramblings of a semi-literate mental patient that he sent to a pro-Nazi magazine that wasn’t even allowed on news stands. The only person of power who would believe this tripe is Alan Fine.
That’s why the Tick is superior. People get right away that it’s a work of satire. On reflection, the Tick might be better viewed as a parody. Parody and Satire are very different from each other; parody loves what it mocks, satire hates what it mocks (thats why you never hear the term political parody). We’ve also never had a wild departure from The Tick’s authorial intent by the simple virtue that Ben Edlund has always been involved with all the Tick’s incarnations. But the Tick-Watchmen connection is more apparent with the Amazon Prime series, not simply because they share actors. SPOILER WARNING! The Terror’s evil plot is mocked by Arthur for being overly convoluted, a plot similar to the one Ozymandias reveals at the end of Watchmen. The Tick was willing to admit that this is overly contrived and made a virtue out of it. No wiggle room, the Tick makes it’s point. Watchmen leaves it vague and Alan Moore’s detachment from the project has left it in the hands of the fanboys. And they do not understand it. The Tick fans do however understand it. They are under no illusions that it’s silly, weird and wholly unashamed of what it is.
